Belgium is Joining the Netherlands

The new Dutch startup Joining has launched in Belgium just six months after a successful start in the Netherlands. Joining is THE platform for spontaneously meeting new people in the Netherlands and aims to take Belgium on this roller coaster ride. With this release, Belgians are now able to plan activities in their country.

The launch was moved forward due to popular demand from Belgian fans that had heard about the website from their Dutch neighbours. Evert Schraven explains, ‘besides the high demand, it was a natural move for us given that Belgium has around 600,000 expats, mainly located in Brussels and we felt it was the right time to open up our services to a larger audience’.

‘We want people to be able to use the internet to get off the internet’

Joining has a simple idea behind it. The drive to meet new and interesting people is something shared by all expats around the world. Being far away from friends and family can be quite uncomfortable. Trying to meet people can be overwhelming. Thinking of that, Joining was built; a place where anyone can find people to join for fun activities. Joining takes the stress out of meeting new people.

The website covers sporting and cultural activities but is also for times when you just want to meet cool people on a Friday night for drinks or go for a run on a weekend. You can also create your own events to meet like-minded people, and with the mobile version you can even plan your next activity whilst on the way to one.

With over 600 planned activities ranging from football games to museum walks to expat drinks so far in the Netherlands, Joining has definitely been a success in its first few months. Positive feedback has been received from many enthusiast users; Sarah Allbeck comments ‘what interested me about the activities in Joining is that they seem smaller in size, and therefore perhaps a bit more intimate in the sense that you get to meet and chat to everyone at the event’.

With Joining now covering the Netherlands and Belgium, the company’s 3-6 months plan is to launch the website in countries like Switzerland, the UK and the UAE where the expat communities are relatively large.